The government would launch a mission to provide universal water supply to areas under all the 4,378 urban local bodies and the next phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission focusing on management of sludge, waste water and construction and demolition waste in cities, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech.
“The World Health Organisation has repeatedly stressed the importance of clean water, sanitation, and clean environment, as a prerequisite to achieving universal health. The Jal Jeevan Mission [Urban], will be launched. It aims at universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crore household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities,” she said.
This mission would be implemented over five years with an expenditure of ₹2.87 lakh crore.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), which is being implemented by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, would get a second round.
“For further swachhta [cleanliness] of urban India, we intend to focus on complete faecal sludge management and waste water treatment, source segregation of garbage, reduction in single-use plastic, reduction in air pollution by effectively managing waste from construction-and-demolition activities and bio-remediation of all legacy dump sites,” she said.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 would be implemented over five years – 2021 till 2026 – with an outlay of ₹1.41 lakh crore, she added.
